Aboriginal communities may challenge land compo

The Federal Government may find itself facing a class action challenging the amount of rent it plans to pay Aboriginal communities, a human rights lawyer says.

The Commonwealth says it will pay rent to Aboriginal communities for compulsory five-year leases that it has taken over their land.

The High Court ruled the Government must pay fair compensation but lawyer George Newhouse says he is examining claims that the rent does not reflect fair value.

"It's very early days," he said.

"The Government's only just announced that they're actually going to pay a rent.

"We need to sit down with the communities, community by community, look at how much land's been taken by the Commonwealth, get a valuer in and have a look and assess what the true worth of the community land is worth."